


We'll Bleed For This Cause

by GreyKestrel



Category: Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Some Humor, Violence, hints of romance, injuries
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-11-17
Updated: 2015-06-08
Packaged: 2018-01-01 20:49:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 11
Words: 16,707
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1048425
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GreyKestrel/pseuds/GreyKestrel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Their cause isn't an easy one, and at the end of the day they trudge back to camp beaten and bloody but never broken.</p>
<p>  <i>A series of inter-connected one-shots based off the thirteen different injuries the characters in Dragon Age: Origins can acquire.</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Deafened

**Author's Note:**

> My first foray into Dragon Age fanfic and the first time I've written any fanfic in a while, so bear with me while I find my footing again! More tags will be added as chapters go up, because right now I'm still not entirely sure who and what the future chapters will entail.(Also it's like, 2am, so if there's any mistakes, forgive me. Hopefully I'll find them in the morning.)

Being the leader of the group was both a blessing and a curse, Elissa decided. It was a blessing because she didn’t need to listen to instructions, just yell them at her companions and hope to the Maker they followed them because _gosh darn it_ she had a plan. It was a curse because she didn’t need to listen to instructions, and therefore didn’t realize until after all the fighting was over that the persistent ringing in her right ear was more than just a minor problem. 

It was the mage’s fault, she’d decided. The mage whose fiery attack had been off it’s mark enough to miss her, but not enough to miss the barrels next to her. The barrels had been filled with something explosive, she didn’t know what exactly, and it had resulted in a forceful blast and a very, _very_ loud noise. 

“Well, that could have gone a lot better,” she said, dropping to sit on the ground in a way she’d been taught was ungraceful and most certainly not ladylike. It was only because she happened to be looking in Morrigan’s general direction that she noticed the other woman had said something in reply. 

“What was that?” Elissa asked, trying to focus her hearing past the ringing. She rubbed at her ear. 

Morrigan spoke again, and though Elissa could see her lips moving the sound refused to carry across the room. Elissa’s brow furrowed and Morrigan simply raised a delicate eyebrow. 

“She said ‘there is no need to yell’.” 

Alistair’s voice next to her left, and kind of working, ear had Elissa jumping in surprise. Her quick, defensive response was mostly automatic. 

“I am not _yelling_.” 

Alistair smiled at her but it was not one of the smiles she was used to seeing on his face. Instead his expression was laced with concern and Elissa couldn’t help the worry that began to wheedle its way into her own thoughts. 

“You are yelling. So am I, actually, because I doubt you’d be able to hear me if I wasn’t.” He rested one hand on her shoulder; it was almost consoling. 

“Ugh, I knew that explosion messed with my hearing but I didn’t think it was this bad.” Elissa rubbed at her ear again, this time more vigorously, like it would help to return sound and _stop that blasted ringing_. 

Alistair was quick to grab her hand and move it away from her ear. “That’s not really going to help,” he said by way of explanation. “It seems that at least one of your ears is working however, which means you won’t have to worry about missing any of my exciting tales on the way back to camp.” 

Elissa pulled a face. Alistair ignored it. 

“But on a more serious note, I think you’re going to be fine. Just give it a day or two, or have Wynne look at it when we get back to camp.” Alistair patted her shoulder gently and stood back up, waiting for Elissa to do the same. 

With an exaggerated sigh Elissa got back to her feet- and nearly tumbled right back over onto the floor. If it weren’t for Alistair’s quick grab for her upper arm she probably would have been adding ‘broken nose by way of face planting into the floor’ to her list of injuries. 

“That would also be due to your ears. They affect your balance you know,” Alistair said. “You better stick close to me for the walk back.” Elissa might have been more inclined to take that as a genuine offer of help if he hadn’t followed it up with an exaggerated wink. 

Across the room Morrigan rolled her eyes. She spoke again, though not loud enough to register as anything more than muffled non-sense to Elissa’s ears. When she’d said her piece, Morrigan turned on her heal and began walking. Elissa assumed they were supposed to follow. 

“What did she say?” Elissa asked, glancing at Alistair. 

“She offered to lead the way back to camp.” 

Elissa frowned. “I know she said more than that.” 

Alistair just chuckled. “Oh, you know Morrigan. Can’t make an offer to do something helpful without throwing in a few insults, it would ruin her image otherwise.” He leaned in closer to Elissa’s ear and said in a _very_ exaggerated whisper, “I think she might have actually been worried about you.” 

Morrigan’s responding, “Would you be quiet, you fool!”, was loud enough for even Elissa to hear.


	2. Torn Jugular

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So it's looking like I'll be able to get these chapters out every couple of days the way I'm going, yay! And thank you to everyone who left kudos, you made my day :)

Having a Mabari hound as a companion for a number of years had left Elissa somewhat ignorant of just how terrifying a dog of that size and musculature could be. The un-creatively named ‘Dog’ was friendly and loyal to a fault, and no matter how many times she’d told people he wouldn’t hurt a fly (unless she instructed him to) they would still shy away from the hulking beast. Elissa had never understood it.

Until now.

With deft skill her daggers sliced through the chest of the bandit in front of her before she brought up her foot and sent a powerful kick into his stomach. The bandit fell to the ground, weapons abandoned as he sluggishly tried to stem the bleeding from multiple deep wounds. With him bleeding out quickly and no longer posing a threat, Elissa turned to her next opponent and came face to face with a charging Mabari.

It was in this split second moment that she realized yes, Mabari were actually quite terrifying when they weren’t yours. She felt bad for letting Dog wreak havoc around the Highever castle now.

Also, _where in the Maker’s name did these bandits get a Mabari!?_

The hound barreled into her at speed and, with nearly a hundred pounds of weight behind it, Elissa went down hard. With the huge hound standing on her chest it made maneuvering difficult and, to put the icing on her cake of disaster, the bloody thing had managed to knock both of her daggers away.

Thinking quickly, she scrambled to pull an arrow from the quiver on her back with one hand while simultaneously using the other to punch the hound in its ugly, meaty face. She knew what a Mabari hound could do with those powerful jaws and there was no way she was going to let those teeth get anywhere near her if she could help it.

“A little help here!” Elissa yelled.

Her fingers finally brushed the feathered fletching of her arrows. With a triumphant cry she pulled one from the quiver, turned it in her hand, and then drove it arrowhead first into the neck of the Mabari hound on top of her.

Only it wasn’t nearly as effective as she’d hoped it would be.

Had she been grappling with a man the arrowhead would have struck home, tearing through fragile skin and very probably slicing through some important blood vessels along the way. Instead it seemed like her own important blood vessels were the one’s in danger.

There was a reason the Mabari were known as war hounds, and all that bulging muscle wasn’t just for show. So while the arrowhead was almost completely buried in the hound’s thick neck, it hadn’t come anywhere near causing an injury serious enough to prevent it from mauling Elissa to death. To do that she probably would have needed another nine arrows and she didn’t even have time to grab _one_ more.

The Mabari reared back before lunging forward with its full weight. Spittle flew from its open mouth as it went straight for her throat. Again it was quick reflexes that saved her, both hands flying up to keep that menacing maw away. Even then she was only half successful.

One hand missed the hound’s lower jaw, ending up under its chin and pushing into its throat. Elissa only hoped that she might be inconveniencing it a little by cutting off its air supply. The other hand ended up on its nose and half in its mouth, but a chewed up hand was better than being dead any day.

Still, Elissa was at a disadvantage and the Mabari was able to get close enough to half clamp it’s mouth around her throat. Then it was all teeth in important blood vessels and teeth in the palm of her hand and mostly just a lot of pain and yelling. And blood, there was quite bit of blood too.

In the end it was Sten who came to her rescue. A mighty double handed swing of his sword and he all but took the hound’s head clean off (and to this day Elissa still didin’t know how he managed that without also slicing her to pieces). The resulting blood spray across most of her upper body and face would have disgusted her and she not been busy trying to put pressure on her own profusely bleeding neck wound.

From her periphery she could see Alistair rushing over, his face going alarmingly pale when he finally got a good look at her. The poor man probably thought _all_ of blood was hers. He shouted for Wynne.

Elissa thought she might have blacked out for a bit then because the next thing she remembered was Wynne kneeling over her, one hand on her cheek and the other putting pressure on her neck wound. Sten kicked the heavy Mabari corpse off her chest, allowing her to finally draw in proper breath again.

Then she really did black out.

 

~

 

When she woke up in camp it was a disorienting experience. Elissa couldn’t remember how she had gotten there, why it was dark when she distinctly remembered it being day, and also what had happened to her. That was, until she tried to turn her head.

“Oww...”

It was Alistair who answered her. “Sleep well, princess?”

“You’re a princess,” she slurred back. Alistair’s resulting expression was hilariously comical.

“Uh, so not quite on the ball just yet then. How are you feeling?”

“Weird.” She sighed. “What happened to my neck?”

“That would have been the Mabari.”

“Oh. Yes, I remember that now.” Elissa cringed.

“Nearly tore clean through your jugular, thought you might have been a goner for a moment there. Everyone was very upset, Morrigan even cried,” Alistair said, sounding much too happy for someone delivering news of that magnitude. Considering she was apparently alive and well however, Elissa figured she could forgive him.

“No she didn’t”

“You’re right, she didn’t.” Alistair chuckled. “She did offer to make dinner though.”

“Yeah?” Elissa lifted her head enough to see the campfire. Sure enough Morrigan was stirring a pot over the flames, resolutely ignoring cooking suggestions from a hovering Wynne. Elissa let her head drop back onto the rolled up blanket serving as a pillow. “So, why are you my babysitter?”

“I volunteered. Crazy, I know,” Alistair replied.

“You were worried about me,” Elissa said with a lazy smile.

“Of course I was! If you weren’t around they,” he gestured to their companions around the camp, “would be looking at me to lead them, and we all know that would be a disaster.”

“Stop deflecting.”

“Oh, that’s not deflecting, little miss Cousland, that’s the truth.”

“I saw your face go five shades whiter in the space of a couple of seconds.”

“You were obviously delirious from blood loss because a strong manly man like myself can handle a little bit of blood.”

“There was a lot of blood, wasn’t there?” Elissa mused. “Some of it belonged to the Mabari.”

“Yes, well, that was all Sten’s fault now, wasn’t it?”

“Speaking of all that blood, where did it go?” she asked looking down at herself and noticing a distinct lack of post-battle gore.

“We thought it would be better to clean you up a little before you woke up so you weren’t lying around in gross bloody clothes.”

“Err…”

“That is we, as in not me, but Wynne and Leliana,” Alistair amended quickly, “because otherwise it would have been very inappropriate and I don’t think Wynne really trusted anyone else to help her anyway, and now I just sound like a right fool, don’t I?” Even in the dull light of the campfire the blush rising on his cheeks was obvious.

Elissa couldn’t help but laugh, loud enough to draw the attention of some of their closer companions. Realizing she was awake, Wynne politely excused herself for Morrigan’s company and began to make her way towards the pair.

“Looks like Wynne wants to check up on me,” Elissa said.

“Such skills of deduction you have. Though I will take my leave for the moment. Might see about getting myself some, hopefully un-poisoned, dinner.” Alistair reached over to tap her nose with his index finger. “Glad to see you well again, Elissa.”


	3. Cracked Skull

As a young woman of noble birth, Elissa had been well educated. Reading, writing, diplomacy, horse riding, table manners, hair styling (“You never know when you’ll be caught without your lady-in-waiting and appearances can be very important,” her mother often informed her), and combat. Combat was a given with an older brother for her childhood role model and a mother who wasn’t half bad with a blade herself (“A noble lady’s first weapon is her sharp mind, though there are times when a sharp blade is called for and a young woman like yourself should excel at using both,” her mother had said right before beating Elissa thoroughly in a spar).

Her combat lessons had always been her guilty pleasure. Even now, in the midst of a battle for her life that was nowhere near similar to the coddled spars she partook in back at Castle Cousland, there was a certain thrill of _excitement_ that ran through her. A run of lucky strikes, ducks and dodges timed so perfectly it was like she was reading her opponent’s minds, mistakes on the part of her targets that left them open for a perfect attack. Elissa felt like she was invincible.

But she wasn’t invincible, and even the most skilled warrior could fall in battle if they weren’t careful.

Her dagger slashed across the throat of the man in front of her but Elissa didn’t stop to think about. If she thought about it her rush of excitement would fade and she’d be left with the stark reality that she was murdering these people, and she could not afford to be distracted by that in the middle of a battle. Those dark moral questions could wait for later when her and her companions were sitting safe in their campsite.

Instead she turned to her next opponent, the dagger in her right hand already slashing out. Her attack glanced off her opponent’s shield but he wasn’t expecting the next blow from her second dagger to follow up so quickly. As her right dagger was deflected she brought her left dagger up under his guard, feeling the blade sink into the soft skin of his side.

She pulled the left dagger free and finished him off by slamming the hilt of the right dagger into his temple. Her opponent dropped to the ground, dead or unconscious Elissa didn’t know, and she began the search for her next target.

_CRACK._

Pain suddenly exploded in the side of Elissa’s head. Her vision blurred for a moment and her legs gave out suddenly, sending her to her knees on the hard ground. She choked on her inhale, struggling to breathe through the sharp pain that throbbed through her head with every heartbeat.

Somehow her battered brain was able to remind her that she was, in fact, still in the middle of a fight, and she rolled quickly to the side. It was a good thing too as half a second later a sword smacked into the ground where she had been moments before.

 _Alistair is going to kill me for not listening to him_ , she thought as she used the momentum of her roll to get her feet back under her. At least, that’s what she tried to do. Instead she ended up dropping back to one knee when her aching head decided it didn’t agree with any kind of fast movement.

Elissa wanted to kick herself for being so stupid, for letting someone sneak up on her. _Guess fighting can be it’s own distraction_ , she thought as her vision swam dangerously close to black for a moment.

When it finally cleared it was just in time to see her attacker raising his sword high, ready to bring it down on her head. Elissa raised her daggers, miraculously still in her hands, and crossed them into an ‘x’ over her head. She managed to catch the man’s sword but her arms shook with the effort it took. She knew then she would have to end the fight quickly.

She pushed up and out with the daggers, using all her strength to deflect the sword off to one side. Then, when the man brought up his shield to deflect from the attack he thought she would make, Elissa made her move. Kneeling as she was put her in the perfect position reach behind his legs and pull her daggers across the back of his knees. The man cried out as he dropped to the ground, putting himself and Elissa face to face and at the same height.

With a growl born half of pain and half of determination, Elissa sunk her daggers into either side of the man’s neck and sliced backwards. With blood spurting from major arteries he keeled over to the side, for all intents and purposes, dead.

Elissa slowly sat back on her haunches. With the adrenaline fading the pain was coming back again, but this time tenfold. As her eyes wandered over the dead man in front of her they latched on to one detail. On the man’s shield, distinctly visible against the silver metal, was bright patch of blood with numerous strands of her hair stuck to it.

She frowned. “Huh.”

“Elissa!”

It took her a moment to realize that someone was calling her name and by the time she did look up Leliana was already kneeling in front of her.

The other woman reached out, gently taking Elissa’s face in both hands and tilting it down slightly to get a better look at her head. “Oh Elissa, what happened?”

“Is that bone?”

Alistair was suddenly standing at Leliana’s side, peering down at what Elissa guessed was a bloody mess. Not that her guess was uninformed however, as a lot of that bloody mess was now dripping down the right side of her face.

“Oh Maker, it is bone. That’s horrific. It can’t be good, with all the blood and the… the everything. We should really do something.”

Elissa slapped out at Alistair’s leg with as much strength as she could muster, hitting him until he stopped talking. Words escaped her at that moment but if she could have spoken she would have told him to shut up because ‘your descriptions aren’t helping and they’re making me want to vomit’.

“I have an injury kit with me. Alistair, hold her head still for a moment, please,” Leliana said. She began digging around in the deep pockets of her robes while Alistair obediently crouched down behind Elissa and held her head still with gentle hands.

“Is some paste and a bandage going to be enough?” Alistair asked.

“It will have to be,” Leliana replied. “Until we can get back to camp there is not much else we can do.” The Orlesian woman opened the health poultice jar and scooped a generous amount onto her fingers. “I’m afraid this might hurt,” she said to Elissa.

“Wait-“ Elissa managed to get out before Leliana slathered the poultice onto her open head wound. The pressure sent an intense stab of pain through Elissa’s head and she pulled back sharply, nearly head butting Alistair’s nose despite the other man’s attempts to hold her still.

“I’m sorry. It’s almost done,” Leliana said. She pulled a bandage from the injury kit and began wrapping it around Elissa’s head.

Elissa flinched every time the bandaged passed over her wound, wishing for the first time ever that she would just pass out from the pain and make this job a whole lot easier for everyone involved. She wasn’t that lucky. Instead she raised a shaking hand to her face to wipe away tears that had been steadily falling since Leliana had begun her ministrations.

As Leliana tied off the end of the bandage she turned to Alistair. “I think you should carry her back to camp. On your back, perhaps. I do think we should keep from jostling her around too much,” she said.

“Reduced to nothing more than a pony, how wonderful.” But he was already moving to help Leliana get Elissa to her feet. They each grabbed her under an arm and slowly guided her up until she was able to stand on her own two feet. She still teetered slightly to the side but Leliana kept a firm hold on her until she was secure on Alistair’s back, his arms under her legs and her arms wrapped loosely around his neck.

Elissa let her head drop lightly to his right shoulder, eyes closing as she listened to Leliana collect up their healing items. With all his amour Alistair’s shoulder wasn’t that comfortable, but Elissa was happy to deal with that rather than attempting to walk back to camp without assistance.

“Sorry,” she mumbled once they had begun walking.

“Sorry for getting blood all over me while I carry you back to camp? Happens to the best of us, apology accepted,” he said. Elissa couldn’t see his face but from his tone she inferred that he was wearing that dumb smile of his as he spoke.

“No. M’sorry for not listening.”

“Aaand now you’ve lost me.”

Elissa sighed into his shoulder. “For not listening ‘bout being aware. Of surroundings. Opponents.”

“Oh, that.” Alistair ‘hmmed’ loudly. “I have to admit, you picked a good time to apologize. There is no way I could turn down someone who looks as pitiful as you do right now.”

“Thanks.” If her eyes weren’t closed Elissa would have rolled them.

“So, apology accepted.” There were a few minutes of silence before Alistair began speaking again. “You know, Duncan tried to teach me loads of things,” he began, “and yet half of the time the lessons wouldn’t really sink in until I’d ignored some piece of advice and ended up in a situation like you did today. I have to admit, never ended up with a cracked skull from those mistakes though.”

“M'kinda bad at this.”

“You’re doing just fine.”


	4. Wounded Eye

“Andraste’s flaming sword!” Elissa exclaimed as the bandit’s flailing punch caught her right in the eye. 

Forgoing all training, she dropped her off-hand dagger and brought her hand up to cover her eye. With her one good eye she watched the bandit laugh, a self-satisfied smile on his face as he readied another punch. Elissa was faster and slashed out with the dagger in her right hand. She only managed to nick the bandit’s chest as he jumped back before the dagger’s bite could really be felt. 

Elissa scowled and followed the bandit who danced out of the way of every slash and slice of her blade.  She knew when she was being toyed with and by the Maker it absolutely drover her up the wall. Any other time the bandit would have been lying in a pool of his own blood by now, but her lack of depth perception was proving to be a problem. That and she probably shouldn’t have dropped her other dagger but _damn_ her eye stung. 

In the end she deliberately faltered in her attack and let the bandit step in close so he could attack. Then she lashed out with her foot and kicked him in the shin. Hard. Because maybe she was feeling a _little_ vindictive by that point. 

When the bandit half bent over to clutch at his leg, Elissa grabbed his head, taking her left hand off her eye to do so, and slammed his face down into her knee. She followed this up by sinking her dagger into the bandit’s back, yanking it back out, and then pushing him to the ground. When she was sure he wasn’t about to get up again, and the rest of his fellows had been disposed of by her companions, Elissa finally allowed herself to groan in pain, dropping her dagger and slapping both hands over her wounded eye. 

She turned to scowl at the bandit laying by her feet and gave him a sharp kick in the side, just because she could. “Bastard!” 

“You called?” Alistair said, sidling up beside her. 

“Not you, Alistair,” she groaned. “Why would I even- you know I don’t- ugh! Nevermind. Shut up. I was talking about this bandit.” She gave the bandit another shove with her foot. 

“Hey now, what did he ever do to you?” 

Elissa turned to Alistair and removed the hands from over her eye. The vision through her injured eye was blurry, though that could have been the tears that kept welling up. Besides that it stung every time she blinked, and Elissa found herself half squinting to try and limit the movement of her eyelids. 

Alistair winced when he saw her eye, however his view of the injury was one Elissa wouldn’t get until she looked in a mirror later that night. Around the eye was swollen already and the white of the eye itself was bloodshot to the point of the entire thing looking pink. 

“That looks like it hurts,” he said. 

“Does it, Alistair? How about I nearly poke your eye out and you can tell me just how much it hurts.” Elissa rolled her eyes and regretted it immediately. She quickly slapped her hand back over her injured eye, if only to remind herself not to do anything with it. 

“I believe 'tis times like these where the charming phrase ‘don’t poke the bear’ is most apt,” Morrigan said as she approached the pair. 

“Charming, Morrigan, and ever so helpful,” Alistair sneered. 

The other woman gave a light shrug. “I do what I can.” 

“Can the pair of you just _not_. Please.” Elissa sighed and dropped her hand from her eye, testing it with a few tentative blinks. It was no better. 

“How bad is it?” Alistair asked. 

“I can still see, mostly, if that’s what you’re asking,” she replied. “It just won’t stop watering. And it _stings_. Really stings.” 

“'Tis fortunate, then, that we were already on our way back to the campsite,” Morrigan said. 

Elissa shot Morrigan an exasperated look. “Alright, back to the camp it is.” With her initial anger about the situation beginning to dissipate, she turned her attention to the ground to search for her dropped daggers. Elissa knew they couldn’t be too far away. 

“Looking for these?” Alistair asked, holding up her daggers. 

“How’d you guess?” Elissa couldn’t help the small half smile that flickered across her face briefly. 

Alistair took a step closer to her then paused. He eyed Elissa warily from where he stood. “You’re not going to bite my head off again if I come near you, are you?” 

Elissa remembered not to roll her eyes this time. “No.” 

Alistair’s wary look was easily replaced with a warm smile. He flipped the daggers in his hand so he could hold them by the blade and handed them back to her grip first with a short bow. 

“Thanks,” she said. 

Alistair nudged her gently in the side, “You know, you can get really grumpy when you’re injured.” 

“She’s in pain. I do not blame her for taking it out on someone, especially if that someone is you, Alistair,” Morrigan chimed in. “And did your tiny brain not comprehend my warning about poking the bear?” 

“Can we stop referring to me as a bear? I’m right here.” 

“Well, if _someone_ hadn’t decided healing magic was beneath her, maybe we wouldn’t have to rely solely on Wynne to deal with injuries,” Alistair shot back at Morrigan. 

“I do not think I heard you correctly, Alistair. Is the templar trying to tell me what I should and should not be using my magic for?” 

“We can’t always have Wynne with us so another healer would be helpful, but Maker forbid you actually decide to do something for other people’s benefit.” 

“And just how is the view from your moral high ground, Alistair? Hmm?” 

“You know what?” Elissa interrupted, “Why don’t you two stay here and see if you can find anything useful. _I’m_ going to head back to camp.” With that said she turned on her heel and began walking down the road and away from the ambush site. She hadn’t taken more that ten steps before Alistair and Morrigan were back at each other. 

“Look what you’ve done now, Morrigan.” 

“Excuse me? And just what makes you think that was not your fault?” 


	5. Wrenched Limb

Elissa’s eyes were narrowed as she searched the forest around her for movement. Her bow was in her hands, an arrow loosely nocked. Her steps were careful and she made sure to make as little noise as possible.

_Snap._

A stick on the ground broke behind her. Elissa let out and exasperated sigh as she rolled her eyes.

“Sorry,” Alistair said, not sounding sorry at all.

“I know you’re doing that deliberately.”

Alistair gasped. “What? Me? Never!”

“Do you want to eat dinner tonight or not?” Elissa asked. She poked him in the side with the point of her arrow when he got close enough. “There is no way I can suffer through that poor excuse for a soup for one more night. It tastes both horrible and like nothing at the same time. How is that even possible?”

“I actually enjoy it.”

“No you don’t.”

“Calling my bluff? Well, you’re right, I don’t enjoy it any more than you do.” Alistair chuckled.

“We’re really bad at provisions planning. I thought we’d have enough decent food to get us to the next major town at least.”

“And what counts as decent food?”

“Anything that’s not an ingredient in that awful soup.” Elissa shuddered at the thought. “But shhh! You’re distracting me.” She turned her attention back to the forest and resumed her slow trek. Alistair followed quietly for the most part.

“So why is it always me you’re dragging along with you?” he asked.

“ _Shhh!_ ”

Alistair shook his head, a small smile on his lips, and lowered his voice to an exaggerated whisper. “Are you going to tell me?”

Elissa shot him a look that was somewhere between amused and annoyed. It was an expression she found herself wearing a lot when it came to Alistair. “I don’t know,” she said, her own voice hushed. “I guess it’s because you’re a Grey Warden.”

“Well that doesn’t explain much of anything,” Alistair said.

“I mean, you’ve been a Grey Warden longer than I have.”

“Yes…”

“And I’m really new to all… this.”

“Also true.”

Elissa sighed. “I like having you by my side-“

“Oh do you now?”

“-because you technically know more about all this Warden business than I do so you’re around to make sure I’m actually doing a decent job.” Elissa couldn’t help the satisfied smirk on her face at Alistair’s thoughtful expression. “What, not what you were expecting?”

“I was hoping for something along the lines of ‘you like having me by your side for my witty sense of humor’ or because I’m ‘devastatingly handsome and you can’t keep your eyes off me’,” Alistair said, raising his eyebrows suggestively.

“You forgot graciously modest.”

“Oh, look at that, I-“ Half way through his sentence Elissa suddenly pulled the bowstring taught and let loose and arrow into the underbrush. The short wounded squeak of an animal let the pair know she had hit her target. “-did. _Wow_. You’re getting good at that. Scary good.”

Elissa barely acknowledged the complement, more concerned with other matters. “Yes! Thank the Maker. No gross, tasteless soup tonight!”

“One rabbit is hardly going to feed everyone,” Alistair said, but he was smiling. Elissa’s enthusiasm was infectious.

She turned around to face him, tapping the underside of his chin with her bow. “Ah, but if there’s one there’s bound to be others.” She grinned and jogged towards where the little creature had been, Alistair following at a more sedate pace.

Being reasonably deep into the forest that bordered their campsite meant there were no paths or walking trails the pair could follow. Instead the ground was uneven and overgrown, with a reasonable layer of leaf litter to boot. While this hardly posed a problem it did prevent them from noticing other, more serious, hindrances.

Elissa heard the soft click a second too late as her left foot landed in the middle of a leg trap. The metal device snapped closed around her lower calf and, unable to stop her forward momentum on time, she was sent tumbling forward. She clenched her teeth in pain when she felt her knee of her trapped leg wrench as she fell face down in the dirt and leaves.

She could hear Alistair’s hurried footfalls as he raced to her side and she hastily pushed herself up onto her forearms. She was brushing dirt off her face when he dropped to his knees by her side.

“Whoa, are you alright?” he asked, hands hovering over her awkwardly like he couldn’t decide whether to touch her or not.

“Great,” she deadpanned, “so long as I stay right here and don’t move my leg.” Elissa looked over her shoulder at the ugly trap still tight on her lower leg. “I hate these things,” she said. “I’m starting to feel sorry for all the bears and wolves who these traps are meant for.”

“People do seem to have a habit of putting them out and then forgetting all about them. Left out for some poor explorer to walk into,” Alistair said. He shuffled over to her trapped leg. “This one looks old. A bit rusty too. You might want to put something on these cuts when we get back. Could get infected otherwise, and then we might end up with a fever crazed lunatic for our leader.”

“That’s… nice. Can you just get it off, please? I’m kind of stuck here until you do.”

“Right away, Milady,” he said and began fiddling with trap. It was only moments later when he spoke up again. “Uh, I think the release might be broken.”

“Of course it is. Do you think you can pry it open so I can pull my leg out?”

Alistair wrapped his hands around either side of the trap and gave it a slight test pull. “Yes, I can do that. Are you sure though?”

“Positive. Just make sure you don’t get your fingers stuck in it when it snaps closed again.”

He laughed. “Do you think I’m some kind of amateur?”

Elissa just made a non-committal noise.

“Ouch. That hurt, Elissa. Right in my manly feelings.” He laced his fingers in-between the teeth on each side of the trap and gripped it tightly. “On three?”

“On three.”

Alistair shifted his footing and made sure he had a good grip on the trap. Elissa took a deep breath and braced herself for the pain she knew would accompany any movement of her leg.

“One. Two. Three!”

Alistair pulled the trap open and the moment it was wide enough Elissa pulled her leg from it’s hold. She rolled onto her back with a pained gasp, her wrenched knee making itself very known.

“I’m sorry, was that my fault?” Alistair asked, his question followed by the sharp snap of the trap closing again. _Hopefully not on his fingers_ , Elissa thought.

“No. Nope,” she gasped out. “My knee. When I fell.” She made a vague wavy hand motion like that would explain things better than her words.

“Right… Mind if I have a look?”

“Have at it,” she said.

She didn’t bother lifting her head off the ground to watch him, quite content to just lay back and stare at the tree canopy above them. It was quite a surprise then when she felt Alistair’s hand on the back of her calf and she couldn’t quite suppress a flinch.

“Bit jumpy, are we? Don’t worry, I’m not about to get all handsy with you. I am a gentleman, after all.”

“A gentleman wouldn’t leave his dirty socks all around camp.”

“That was one time!” He placed his other hand on the back of her thigh, just above her knee. “It’s not like it was in your bedroll anyway.”

“Thank the Maker for that.” She finally propped herself up on her elbows when she felt him lift her bent leg slightly off the ground. “What exactly are you doing?”

He shot her a reassuring smile. “Just going to see if you can straighten you leg out.”

He barely moved it before a sharp stab of pain kicked in. She sat up quickly, which didn’t really help the pain all that much, and slapped his hands away. “Ow, _ow_ , be careful!”

“Well, that’s no good.”

“You _think_? Maker, that hurts more than where those bloody teeth from the trap sunk in.” Her hands fluttered over her knee, wanting to hold it but knowing it would probably just end up hurting more.

“You know, this means I’m going to have to carry you back to camp. Again.”

Elissa buried her face in her hands. “I know,” she said, voice muffled. “This is so embarrassing.”

“How about I just carry you most of the way, and then put you down so you can hobble back into camp like the stubborn heroine you are?”

She couldn’t help a short snort of laugher, separating her fingers so she could peer through them at Alistair. “Aww, you would do that for me?”

Alistair gave her a mocking bow from where he knelt. “Anything for you, Lady Cousland.” He got back to his feet and crouched down to pick her up.

“Wait!” she shouted.

Alistair’s face fell. “What now?”

“My bow. And we forgot dinner.” She pointed over to the almost forgotten rabbit still lying on the ground a few meters from them.

“You’re kidding, right?”

Elissa frowned. “No. I’m still hungry, and I didn’t do this,” she gestured to her knee, “for nothing.”

“Alright,” he said, unconvinced, “but you’re going to have to carry it because I’m going to be busy carrying you.” Alistair stood again and retrieved the rabbit, also picking up Elissa’s dropped bow and putting it over his back. “Good now?”

“Yes,” she said, taking the rabbit from him with only the slightest of grimaces.

Alistair crouched down by her side again and allowed Elissa to loop her right arm around the back of his neck. He then slipped an arm behind her lower back and, more carefully, another one under her knees. Her hurt knee protested when he lifted her and she was left biting down hard on her lip until he had her mostly settled in his arms.

“All good?” Alistair said as he began walking. His steps were careful, making sure not to jostle her more than necessary.

“Just make sure _you_ don’t step in a trap, because then we’ll be really done for.”

Alistair’s resulting laugh made her smile.

“Oh, wouldn’t that be tragic.”


	6. Gaping Wound

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've got to stop proof-reading these at 2am. Sorry about any mistakes in this or previous chapters guys. Hopefully anything that slips through the net isn't too bad XD

Elissa tumbled down short but steep incline with all the finesse of a noble lady tripping over her ludicrously huge skirts, which is to say not much at all. Elissa had seen firsthand how ungraceful and hilarious that situation was at one of her parent’s fancy dinners. The situation she was in now, however? Not nearly as funny. 

She knew she was getting close to the edge of the incline during the fight but she hadn’t expected her opponents shield bash to send her right over the edge. And so she fell head over heels backwards down the slope. Short though it may have been, it was covered with small bushes, a number of pointy twigs, and some very sharp rocks. 

Elissa hit the bottom of the slope rather quickly and came to a stop on the more level ground. “Just great,” she muttered to herself. She sat up and quickly took stock of her injuries. _Can feel fingers and toes, good, no head wound, also good, elbow is a bit sore, that’s fine, and oh, dear Maker that doesn’t look so good…_  

Part of her right leg was covered in blood but she didn’t get the chance for more than a cursory look because at that moment an arrow lodged into the ground beside her with a dull _thwack_. 

She glanced up to the top of the incline and found herself locking eyes with the archer, a dark haired woman with equally dark eyes and smirk on her lips. The woman already had another arrow nocked and Elissa only just scrambled out of the way of the second shot. 

Elissa reached for her own bow to return fire but her hand grasped at empty air. Her eyes quickly scanned the area and she finally found it not far from where she was. The only problem was the bow was snapped clean in half and completely unusable. 

The third arrow came so close it nicked the edge of her ear and Elissa hurriedly turned her attention back to the woman. 

She tested her bleeding leg, hoping it wasn’t going to let her down if she needed to make any quick movements. It hurt, but held her weight fairly well for the most part. Elissa realized that could have just been the amazing pain numbing effect of adrenaline, however, and knew she couldn’t rely on it staying that way for long. The archer woman would get tired of her games soon enough, and then Elissa was really going to have to take action. 

“Aww, the little girl is all alone,” the woman crooned. She loosed another arrow that landed in front of Elissa’s feet, sending her stumbling backwards. “You’re in quite the predicament now, little girl. Just wait until my people are done with your friends and then- _urk!_ ” 

The woman arched backwards, eyes wide as she dropped her bow to claw at something at her back. She jerked again with another pained noise, a chocked cough sending blood flying from her mouth. Then her eyes dulled and she was pushed unceremoniously down the incline. The woman’s lifeless body rolled to a stop at Elissa’s feet but she was too busy watching Zevran at the top of the incline, a bloody dagger held in his hand. 

“I think I had heard quite enough. Didn’t you, Warden?” he said, looking down at Elissa with a small smug smile. 

“Yeah. Thanks.” Elissa looked down at the woman lying before her, two deep stab wounds in her back. She carefully stepped around the body and hobbled her way back to the bottom of the incline, spotting a large rock that would make a good seat. “Is everyone else alright?” 

“We are all fine,” Zevran said, sheathing his daggers. “Highway bandits are hardly a challenge. Though I must say you are looking a little worse for wear.” 

“Yes, well, that was an accident,” she replied quickly, feeling her cheeks redden with embarrassment. She quickly sat down and turned her attention to the wound on her leg to hide her face. 

If Elissa was honest with herself the wound was pretty gross looking. It was a gaping cut down the side of her leg and was filled with dirt, bits of gravel, and even a twig with a leaf on it. She gagged a little. 

Alistair chose that moment to appear at the top of the slope, Dog bounding up beside him. “Bandits dispatched. Have you found our missing leader so we can get- oh not again.” 

Elissa shot Alistair her most withering look. 

“What have you done now?” 

Before Elissa could get a word out Zevran answered. “She says it was an accident.” 

“I misjudged how close I was to the edge of the slope but everything was fine. End of story. Now is one of you going to get down here and help me?” 

Dog let out a happy bark and made his way down the slope towards her, doing a much finer job of navigating the incline than she had. He reached the bottom easily and trotted over to her, ducking his head to sniff at her leg wound. Elissa quickly pushed his head away. 

“No offense boy, but this already has a whole bunch gross things in it, let’s not put your doggy mouth, which I know you have been using to drag around dead squirrels, anywhere near it,” she said. Dog just whined and she shook her head in exasperation. “You can check it later, when it’s clean and bandaged.” 

“Speaking of,” Alistair said as he reached the bottom of the slope, “I have the injury kit right here.” 

“Good, just let me try and clean this up a little,” she replied, eyeing the twig half inside the cut with disdain. Tentatively she grabbed the end and pulled it away carefully. “Oh, oh, that is disgusting.” 

“It’s nature,” Alistair exclaimed with a grin, “there’s nothing disgusting about that. Right, Zevran?” 

The assassin just shrugged his shoulders. 

Elissa flicked the twig in Alistair’s direction. “It’s disgusting when it’s in me.” 

“I don’t know,” he said, looking down at the wound, “your insides are looking pretty _out_ side to me. 

Elissa made a gagging noise. “Now _that_ is disgusting. Ugh.” She picked out a few of the larger pieces of gravel, slippery with blood, and accepted a flask of water off Zevran to wash out the worst of the smaller things. “We have some healing poultice, right? Because this is bleeding quite a lot. I don’t know how I didn’t notice before.” 

“To busy dodging arrows perhaps?” Zevran shot her a sly smile. 

“I wouldn’t laugh. She probably came closer to finishing the job than you did,” Elissa said, wincing as Alistair applied the poultice to the wound. 

Zevran raised his hands in surrender. “I concede, Warden.” He was still smiling. 

“Your grin says otherwise,” she said. 

“And done,” Alistair said, finishing up wrapping the bandage around her leg. “Good as new I think. I’m pretty darn good at this healing business.” 

Elissa chuckled. “Not quite as good as new but it will do for now.” She accepted Alistair’s helping hand to get her back on her feet. Like when she first noticed the wound, she tested her weight on it. She would be walking with a bit of a limp but it was nothing that was going to particularly hinder their job for the day. 

“Are we ready to move on, Warden?” Zevran asked. 

“One moment,” Elissa said. She made her way over to her broken bow and picked it up with a sigh. 

“How did you manage that?” Alistair asked, looking impressed. 

Elissa rolled her eyes. “Same way I did this,” she pointed at the now bandaged leg wound. “I really liked this one too.” 

“If I may,” Zevran interrupted, “I know where one can acquire a rather fine bow.” 

“Of course you do,” Alistair said. 

Zevran barely acknowledged Alistair’s comment. “It is just a suggestion. A long range weapon can be a good friend to an assassin, and I my weapons to be of a high quality.” 

Elissa half-heartedly slotted the broken ends of the bow back together despite knowing it was beyond repair. “I might have to take you up on that offer.” 

Alistair scoffed. “You can’t be serious. First you trust the assassin to watch your back and now you trust him to find you reliable weapons?” 

“Feeling a little overprotective, Alistair?” Zevran asked. 

Elissa grinned. “Aww, that’s so cute.” 

Alistair just huffed and crossed his arms over his chest. “You two are the worst, you know that?"


	7. Head Trauma

Confined to the center of camp where Wynne could keep an eye on her had Elissa feeling like a little girl again. When she had returned from their her trip into the forest sporting a bump almost the size of an egg and a small cut on her head, the older woman had sat her down with a stern look and told her not to move. Elissa hadn’t argued while Wynne simultaneously looked over the injury and lectured her on the detrimental effects of multiple head wounds in a short space of time. Then Wynne had cleaned the cut, wrapped a bandage around her head, and instructed her to stay by the fire and not do anything overly taxing for the rest of the night. 

So there Elissa sat, leaning back against the large log they had been using as a seat and throwing twigs into the fire with a frown. Her head still hurt, and the bandage wrapped around it itched. She had been prodding and pulling at the material earlier but Leliana had slapped her hand away and told her not to touch it. Since then she made sure to only scratch at the material when she was sure no one was looking, which wasn’t often because somehow Wynne had talked everyone into keeping an eye on her. 

She reached for another twig to throw into the flames and found her little pile had run out. After searching the ground around her, Elissa established that she had already gathered all the twigs within reach and was now effectively left with nothing to do. With an exaggerated sigh she slouched down even further. 

“Are you quite done?” Wynne asked from the other side of the fire. 

“It would be great if I was allowed to do something. _Anything_ ,” Elissa replied. She found she couldn’t really be mad at Wynne, even if she wanted to be. The woman had been like a blessing from the Maker when it came to dealing with injuries and ailments throughout their journey, and if the only downside about that was that she got a little strict with her patients? Elissa couldn’t begrudge her that. 

“Head wounds are tricky. You may think you’re fine only to go to sleep and not wake up the next morning,” Wynne said. 

Elissa’s frown deepened. “But that’s not going to happen to me, is it?” 

Wynne laughed and Elissa relaxed a little. There was no way that Wynne would laugh so lightly if her head trauma were that serious. 

“No. You, Elissa, are going to make a full recovery. But only if you listen to me.” Wynne stood then and made her way around to Elissa’s side of the fire. In her hands was a small cup that she held out to Elissa. “For the headache I know you must have.” 

Elissa accepted the cup with a raised eyebrow. “And how did you know that?” 

“It’s almost a certainty when someone is hit in the head as hard as you were. That and the particular frown you are wearing I have come to realize is your ‘I’m in pain but I’m going to soldier through it and not tell anyone’ frown.” Wynne’s small smile betrayed her amusement at the situation. “Do make sure you drink that. I promise it will help.” With a polite nod of her head Wynne wandered off towards the tents. 

Elissa turned her attention to the cup held in her hand, lifting it to her nose to take a tentative sniff. It didn’t smell bad, so that was a good start. She jerked slightly in surprise when someone sat down on the log next her, having not heard anyone approaching. Looking up from the drink, she tilted her head back until she could see it was just Alistair. 

“I don’t think its poison, you know,” he said, gesturing to the drink. 

“Did Wynne send you over here to babysit me?” Elissa asked. She looked back down at the drink, swirling it around in the cup a little. It was a rather unappealing color. 

“I can’t just come over her to sit by the fire? Maybe I wanted to enjoy the always delightful conversation my fellow Warden supplies?” 

“You know that you babble and change subjects when you’re trying to lie, right?” 

“You know you get tetchy when you’re hurt, right?” 

Elissa just shrugged. She couldn’t really rebuke that when he was completely right. 

Alistair sighed, the sound exasperated but a small smile on his face betrayed a certain fondness. “I was sent over to make sure you didn’t do anything reckless while you’re supposed to be resting. Wynne can be very good at persuading people to do what she asks.” 

Elissa chuckled. “What kind of reckless things do you think I’m going to do?” 

“Perhaps run off into the forest and fight a bear. You strike me as a thrill seeker.” 

Elissa laughed outright at that. “That’s so crazy.” She took a sip of the drink Wynne had given her nearly spat it right out when the horrid taste registered. She quickly forced herself to swallow the small mouthful she had taken. “Yuck! That is disgusting.” 

“Wynne also said I was to make sure you drank all of that. Even if I had to force it down your throat,” Alistair said with a grimace. “Though I would appreciate it if it wouldn’t come to that.” 

Elissa leveled him with a stare. “You really think you could do it anyway?” 

Alistair pointed at her face. “See? That look there is what makes me think you could take on a wild bear and win.” 

“Well, fear not, because I’m not going to run off and fight and bear. And I _am_ going to drink this.” She lifted the cup in an imaginary toast. “Here goes nothing.” 

She downed the rest of the drink in one go, leaving her coughing and spluttering at the foul taste. Alistair patted her gently on the back and plucked the cup from her hand. 

“Surely it’s not that bad,” he said, looking at the cup critically. 

“No,” Elissa said, “It’s worse. If I wasn’t sure it was actually going to make me feel better I would have thrown it into the fire after the first sip.” She let herself tilt to the side and rested her head on Alistair’s thigh. His hand came up automatically to rest on her shoulder, squeezing softly. 

“Tired?” he asked, looking down at her. 

“Apparently head wounds do that to you.” 

Alistair shook his head in mock disappointment. “Tsk, tsk. This is why you should have brought me with you.” 

“I don’t know,” she mused, “You were very squeamish about my last head wound.” 

“Don’t remind me.” 

Elissa laughed quietly, watching the flames of their campfire dance until she was eventually lulled to sleep by Wynne’s concoction and Alistair’s deep, even breaths.


	8. Bleeding

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I was reading through some of the earlier chapters and noticed some horrific typos and spelling errors that I missed. How embarrassing XD Anyway, I thought I'd get this chapter out (sorry it's been a while guys) and then I'm going to go back and fix up the earlier chapters. Just wanted to let you know that I do know how to write, I just happen to miss a lot of dumb things while editing at 2am, haha!

Elissa’s eyes were narrowed in concentration, watching Zevran for the slightest hint of what he would do. The fingers of his left hand tightened on his dagger and Elissa felt her left hand twitch in response. Her gaze flicked to his mouth and she found him smirking. 

“Don’t do that.” 

His raised his eyebrows and she might have bought the look of surprise if he wasn’t still smirking. “Do what?” 

“Smirk like that.” Elissa shifted her feet slightly, feeling her hands beginning to sweat where they gripped her twin daggers. “It’s putting me off.” 

Zevran twirled the dagger in his right hand, drawing Elissa’s eyes to it. “Are you going to ask your opponent to stop doing what he is doing in the middle of fight because it is ‘putting you off’?” 

Elissa rolled her eyes and that was when Zevran lunged forward. She was embarrassed by the squeak of surprise that escaped her mouth but was glad she at least managed to block his first dagger, and then the second. She wasn’t so lucky with the third. 

Zevran’s dagger sailed past her defenses and he slapped her on the side of the neck with the flat of the blade. He chuckled. “Dead.” 

“Yes, thank you, I know.” Elissa pushed his dagger away from her neck and took a step back. She shook her arms out, loosening her muscles, and drew in a deep breath before letting it out slowly. 

“You did ask me to teach you.” Zevran took his own step back, his eyes roving over that camp while he waited for Elissa to be ready. 

Elissa scowled. She directed it in Zevran’s direction but if she was honest it was herself she was getting frustrated with. “I did beat you once before, I don’t understand why this is so difficult for me to get the hang of now.” 

Zevran turned back to her with a grin. “You worry to much, Warden. Think too much.” 

“You’re such a helpful teacher.” 

“Here,” he beckoned her towards him with one hand, “try to strike me. Don’t hold back.” 

Elissa hesitated. “Are you sure?” 

It was Zevran’s turn to roll his eyes. “ _Elissa._ ” 

“Alright!” 

Elissa took a another deep breath and then struck. She feinted left before spinning on her heel to strike out at Zevran’s right. He saw right through her feint and blocked both her daggers with his own. Elissa pulled back but lunged forward again just as quickly, aiming her daggers lower this time. Again Zevran easily avoided the attack and slipped behind her. Before Elissa even had time to turn he had one arm wrapped around her middle, pinning her arms, and the other brought a dagger to her neck. 

He pressed the flat of the cool blade against her throat. “Dead. Again.” He held her for a moment before dropping his arms, leaving Elissa to stumble forward slightly. 

“I don’t know what you are trying to prove,” Elissa grumbled. She tossed her daggers to the ground, one landed tip first and upright while the other hit the ground on the wrong angle and fell over. Then, with a huff, she plopped herself down on the ground. 

Zevran sheathed his daggers and walked up to where she sat, crouching down in front of her. “I hope you are not giving up already, Warden.” 

“And if I am?” Elissa shot back. “I thought you were going to help me, what is this achieving?” 

Zevran laughed. “The way I see it, we are achieving multiple things. You are learning that you are not infallible, I get the opportunity to be close to a beautiful woman…” 

“If you know what’s good for you you’ll stop right there.” 

“You do not like complements? Because you are a beautiful woman, _Elissa_.” 

The way he practically purred her name had Elissa fighting down a blush. “What does this have to do with weapon training?” 

“Nothing. I just like making you blush, and the faces your fellow warden makes when I do are most enjoyable.” Zevran smiled and tipped his head slightly in the direction of the camp. Elissa glanced over and sure enough Alistair was sending a seriously displeased look in their direction. 

“He really doesn’t like you, does he?” 

Zevran just shrugged. “It is not his opinion I am concerned with, but back to our spar. What do you think I am trying to show you?” 

Elissa frowned. “That I got really lucky when I bested you that time you tried to assassinate me?” 

“Not quite.” Zevran chuckled. “As an assassin I perceive my body as a weapon, and a weapon is most effective when you know how to use it, no?” 

“So you’re saying I don’t know how to use my body?” Elissa pulled a face. “That sounded wrong.” 

Zevran just smiled at her with knowing eyes. “I have fought with you in the heat of battle and you are quite talented. You are… intuitive. You act on instinct in a fight and your instincts are good. As you pointed out before, you were able to best even me in combat.” 

Elissa ducked her head at the complement before looking back at him with confusion. “If that’s the case, why can’t I do that now?” 

“Ah, that is simple.” He tapped her on the forehead with a finger. “Here you know you are among friends, it makes you comfortable. When you are comfortable, you over think.” 

“I over think.” Elissa hummed in thought. “That makes sense. I need to start working off my instincts again, right?” 

“Exactly.” Zevran stood and offered her a hand. “Don’t think, just act and react.” 

Elissa smiled as she took his offered hand. “I think it’s time I gave this another shot.” Zevran hauled her to her feet and she bent to pick up her daggers. 

“I am not going to go easy on you this time, Warden,” Zevran said as he re-drew his daggers. 

“Warning duly noted.” Elissa widened her stance slightly, weight on the balls of her feet as she got ready to move. 

“Remember, no over thinking.” 

Elissa nodded and then the spar was on. 

Zevran circled slowly and Elissa followed his movements. When he lunged for her she was able to quickly dance out of his way before turning to slash at his back. Zevran anticipated this move however and had tucked himself into a forward roll, carried by the momentum of his lunge. He turned as he rose gracefully to his feet and they were at a standoff again. 

This time it was Elissa who made the approach, though it was much slower. She snaked forward, eyes watching Zevran for any sign of an attack. It was like a game of chicken except involving sharp weapons and the threat of real injury. 

It was Elissa who broke first, slashing high with one dagger and low with the other in opposite directions. Zevran deflected the high dagger easily but had to step back quickly to avoid the one aimed at his stomach. 

He darted forward again then, bring the fighting into very close quarters. He lashed out with a barrage of swipes and stabs aimed to distract and tire but Elissa was quick enough to deflect every single one. Then she got caught up in the exact thing she wasn’t meant to do, over think, and made a poor deflect attempt on Zevran’s forward thrust with his left dagger. 

Elissa’s blade had been in position enough to stop Zevran from skewering her stomach but not enough to deflect the blow completely. She let out a pained gasp as his dagger cut clean across her side, just below her ribs, and both of them froze. 

It was deep, Elissa figured that out from the amount of warm blood she could feel running down her side and pooling on the flat of the dagger, but she was positive it hadn’t gone near anything vital. She glanced to Zevran’s face and found him looking at where the edge of is dagger was still pressed into her side with wide eyes. 

“I hope you’re not trying to assassinate me again,” she said, watching his eyes flick up to her face. Then, finally, a small smile graced his lips. 

“You would know if I was trying,” he replied before looking down at the wound again. “You might wish to put pressure on this when I remove the dagger.” 

Elissa carefully tossed her own daggers to the ground so her hands were free and when Zevran pulled the blade away she quickly covered the wound. Zevran’s hand appeared on top of hers a moment later, pressing down hard and causing her to gasp in pain again. 

“Wynne’s going to want to look at this,” Elissa said as soon as she had her breath back. 

Zevran looked over to the camp. “It appears the surly warden is already fetching her.” 

Elissa couldn’t help a small, amused snort. “Don’t call him that. You realize he’s going to hate you even more after this.” 

Zevran began leading her back towards the center of their camp. “As I said before, it is not his opinion I am concerned with.” 

Elissa winced with every step she took, feeling the wound pull. “I guess this means we’re done for today.” 

“I would think so.” He paused before adding, “You were much better that time.” 

Elissa’s laugh was cut short by the pain that ran sharply up her side. “Right up until I let you stab me, yes?” 

He chuckled. “Right up until you let me stab you.”


	9. Broken Bone

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait everyone, it's been a busy first half of the year. Here is chapter 9, finally, and while I don't think it's my best writing I didn't want to keep you waiting any longer.
> 
> Secondly, I finally got around to editing the previous chapters, so if for some reason you get a bunch of alerts at once for this fic it's probably me just updating previous chapters XD
> 
> And finally, I thought I should let people know I have a tumblr so if you ever want to ask questions or inquire about how the writing for this fic is going feel free to drop me an ask over there. You can find me at graykestrel.tumblr.com (note that on tumblr I'm graykestrel with an 'A', while over here and on fanfic.net I'm greykestrel with an 'E').
> 
> Anyway, sorry for the long note and I hope you enjoy the chapter!

These days it seemed no matter where they went trouble was either already there or close behind them. They couldn't take one step down a well-traveled road without being accosted by a group of darkspawn, and if it wasn't darkspawn it was bandits, and if it wasn't bandits it was wolves, or something else equally as troubling. This day the whole group was on the move, so of course that meant they were going to run into danger while they were encumbered by packs, and tents, and had a wagon with two civilian dwarves following them.

"Do you think if we stopped traveling on the roads we'd run into less trouble?" Elissa yelled over the sounds of fighting.

There were several yelled "no"s in response.

Elissa let loose another arrow right into the back of a darkspawn attempting to sneak up behind Alistair. "But surely back roads, or even no roads, would be less likely of a target?"

"Not necessarily," Leliana yelled back, "we could run into more."

"Knowing our luck that would be exactly right," Alistair added, finishing off the darkspawn that still has Elissa's arrow sticking out of it's back.

“Just a suggestion.” Another arrow was released into another darkspawn, this time tearing straight through it’s throat. “Can you blame me for wanting to avoid this every time we decide to travel more than a hundred feet in any one direction?” Elissa glanced around the impromptu battlefield, assessing the odds that they would all make it out of the fight relatively unscathed. Surprisingly they were doing fairly well.

The darkspawn were numerous but her and her companions were slowly whittling down the numbers. Wynne and Morrigan were fighting from next to the caravan, keeping their dwarven companions safe and giving magical support from a distance. Alistair and Sten and charged right into the fray with Leliana darting between them to make opportunistic strikes. Zevran had taken to the outskirts of the main area of fighting, picking off opponents who were injured or strayed to far from their fellows. And then there was Elissa. She had taken the opportunity early in the fight to perch herself on a raised hill off to the side of the fighting, making the most of her archery skills and causing damage from a distance. All in all they made a pretty good team, but if there was one thing Elissa had learnt on their journey it was that their luck never held for long.

Just when it looked like they were nearing the end of their battle a second wave of darkspawn appeared as if from nowhere, effectively surrounding Alistair, Sten, Leliana, and Zevran. Elissa just grit her teeth and aimed another arrow, landing it in the eye of a darkspawn just about to swing a mace into Leliana’s side. Leliana turned in time to see the darkspawn drop to the ground and shot Elissa a thankful smile. Elissa let loose another arrow and glanced back to Leliana to return the smile, only to find the other woman staring at something behind her with wide, worried eyes.

Unfortunately Elissa had been on the receiving end of that look numerous times, too many times if you asked Alistair but no one did because it usually started him ranting, and she knew that there was quite probably something big, bad, and terrible standing right behind her. So Elissa did the first thing that came to mind, resisting the urge to yell out to Zevran that she was being a great student, and dropped her bow to the ground. The arrow she kept a hold of, wrapping both hands around the shaft and spinning on her heel. Ideally she would have plunged the arrow in the soft, squishy side of the darkspawn. Only that’s not what happened, because the darkspawn standing behind her was a veritable giant and rather than shoving an arrow into some nice important organs, Elissa just ended up ramming it into the darkspawn’s hip bone.

“Oh, not good.” Elissa looked up to the face of the darkspawn and found she had to crane her neck back to even see it, because standing in front of her was no ordinary darkspawn. The hurlock snarled down at her, seemingly not bothered by the arrow sticking out of its side. Elissa was frozen until the Hurlock made to reach for her, and it was only then that she let go of the arrow.

She went to jump back, only to remember she had been standing on a small hillock, and backwards was going to send her off the small ledge. Not keen to repeat her previous experience of falling backwards down a slope, Elissa quickly darted around the hurlock, ducking under it’s arms as she made for the open space behind it. She was about to reach for her daggers, because there was no way her bow was going to be useful in close quarters and even if it was she wasn’t about to turn around to go get it, when a heavy kick to her back sent her straight to the ground.

Elissa rolled onto her back, not keen to be lying face down in the dirt for any longer than necessary, and was just in time to see the hurlock’s foot stamp down on her leg and hear the resounding _crack_ that came with it _._ The pain didn’t register at all in the beginning, though Elissa knew her leg had broken. Last time she checked loud cracks were definitely a bad thing.

Still, Elissa didn’t have time to spare as the hurlock finally drew its sword. She reached awkwardly for her dagger as the hurlock looked down at her with a grotesque grin on it’s face. She didn’t have time to even think about how she was going to attack from the ground when an arrow thwacked into the darkspawn’s back, followed closely by a magical blast of energy. The hurlock turned, distracted, which gave Sten the chance to charge into its side, sending both of them to the ground a little ways from Elissa.

Elissa had other things on her mind though, as when the hurlock’s foot had left her leg the pain had finally kicked in. Gritting her teeth against the ache she glanced across to where Sten was now fighting, watching with satisfaction as he promptly beheaded the darkspawn.

“Elissa!” Leliana exclaimed as she dropped down next her.

“Don’t tell me how bad it is,” Elissa said. So far she had yet to look down at her leg, worried at the damage the hurlock might have achieved.

“Oh, no, it’s not that bad. Here.” Leliana shuffled around behind her to help Elissa sit up carefully. Elissa was hesitant but Leliana managed to get her sitting upright without any undue stress on her leg, and once sitting Elissa saw that it really didn’t look quite as bad as she thought it would.

The skin was already a mottled purple with a smattering of blood but there was no bone sticking though skin like she had feared. Still, she slapped away Leliana’s hands when the other woman made to touch the bruised and bloody skin. “No, no, it’s broken, no need to touch.”

“How do you know it’s broken?” Leliana asked, still scrutinizing the wound but not making to touch it again.

“I, uh, heard it. Heard it snap.” For some reason saying it out loud made her feel queasy. Then again, that might have just been the pain starting to get to her. Elissa took a deep breath through her nose before exhaling through her mouth. “This is probably going to hinder us a bit to a lot.”

“Not if I have any say in it,” Wynne chimed in, having finally made her way up the incline. Alistair walked alongside her as the elder mage of their group made her way to where Elissa sat.

Alistair frowned once he was close enough to see her leg. “You’re lucky it was your leg that got stepped on and not your head.”

The joke didn’t go down too well, with the blood draining from Elissa’s face at the thought of her skull making the same cracking sound as her leg. Wynne was quick to scold him, leaving the grey warden looking suitably chastised. “Sorry, my mouth seems to get the better of me in situations like this.”

“I’ll say,” Elissa added, though weakly.

“Joking already,” Alistair said, offering her a fond smile. “See, she’ll be fine.”

“Not anytime soon,” Wynne said, having finished her own inspection of Elissa’s leg. “This is going to take a bit more time and skill than what is needed to fix a bump on the head.”

“How much time?” Elissa asked.

Wynne just pursed her lips and shook her head.

“I do hope you’re not planning on dawdling here,” Morrigan called out from where she leant against the caravan, arms crossed over her chest and looking disinterestedly in their direction.

“She’s right.” Elissa sighed. “We don’t know if there are any are any more da-AHH-kspawn around.” She glowered at Wynne who lifted her hand from where she had been feeling along Elissa’s leg.

“Well, you’ve well and truly done yourself in this time,” Wynne said, “and no amount of stubbornness is going to allow you to walk on this until I’ve seen to it.”

“If I may,” Bodahn said, surprising everyone, as no one had seen him approach. “We’re light on goods right now, I’m sure my boy and I could move some things around so we can keep moving and work on your healing at the same time.” He turned to Wynne then. “The may not be much room for you to work though.”

“No, it will be fine. Won’t it Wynne?” Elissa turned hopeful eyes onto Wynne. The older woman frowned in way that suggested no, it wouldn’t be fine, but she’d make do regardless. “Alright, perfect! Umm…” Elissa glanced around at the people with her on the hillock. “How am I going to get to the caravan?”

Alistair sighed. “Looks like I’ll need to carry you. Again.”

“Sorry,” Elissa said with a sheepish smile.

“I’ll start clearing things in the caravan,” Bodahn said, hurrying down the hill ahead of them.

He needn’t have moved so fast though, as it took Alistair, Wynne and Leliana a good few minutes to figure out the best way to move Elissa without moving her leg. By that point even the slightest jostle had pain racing up her leg, making her feel sick to her stomach. In the end they had Alistair scoop her up with one arm behind her back and the other under her thighs while Leliana held her broken leg out as straight as possible.

They took their time getting to the caravan but even then it ended with a white faced Elissa, silent tears running down her cheeks. Getting into the caravan was another feat in itself but again they managed it. Wynne climbed into the caravan after Elissa, eager to get started on the healing work, and shooed the others away. And then, just like that, they were on the move again.

It wasn’t until later when most the pain had subsided, the tears had stopped, and she could think clearly again, did Elissa realized they didn’t even make it to lunch before they had been attacked. That and her being stuck in the back of the caravan meant that Alistair had probably been left in charge, and Maker knew that was probably a disaster waiting to happen.

As if on cue she heard the loud voices on Morrigan and Alistair getting into another useless argument, followed by the grumbling of everyone around them. Elissa couldn’t help but laugh at the absurdity of it all, even if it did lead Wynne to check her for a fever while muttering something about ‘hysteria’ under her breath


	10. Crushed Arm

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You know, I sat down to write this chapter and thought 'this will be a short one', but it ended up being the longest chapter yet! Sorry for the long wait on this one too. It's my final year of uni so study is higher on the priorities list than fanfiction, even though I wish it was the other way around, haha! Also, fun fact: I'm pretty sure I spelt Oghren's name at least five different ways in the first draft before I finally looked up the correct spelling and added it to my Word dictionary XD
> 
> Anyway, enjoy this chapter! Thanks to everyone who has commented or left kudos too, you guys are great :)

Since visiting Orzammar and finding Oghren, cave exploring had become a thing. It was, however, a thing that Elissa was not so keen on partaking in. Being the intrepid leaded of their rag-tag group came with responsibilities though, and those responsibilities included cave exploring. So here she was in the last place she’d ever choose to be: a dark, cramped, and probably unstable, system of tunnels under the ground. 

She’d put Oghren in charge as they made their way through the tunnels, or put him charge as much as one can put someone that appears to be almost permanently intoxicated in charge. The more she thought about it ‘in charge’ probably wasn’t entirely correct. ‘Leading’ was probably better, but leading in the sense that he was leading them in the right direction, not leading like being in charge leading. Though, maybe it would have been better if he were in charge leading, because Elissa couldn’t even remember why they were in the caves. Getting something for someone who was too lazy or too scared to get it themselves most likely. _Yes_ , Elissa thought, _that sounds about right. Will teach you for jumping up to be the first person to help everyone._

A stone clattered down from the roof and Elissa barely managed to stop herself from jumping in fright, instead suppressing it to a rather violent flinch. From the corner of her eye she saw Zevran glance her way. He was the only one who was walking by her, with Wynne walking further ahead and just behind Oghren who was on point. When she thought about it she realized he had made a point of either walking by her side or just behind her for most of the time they were in the tunnels.

Elissa finally turned her head to look at him properly. “Is something wrong, Zevran?”

The assassin gave her a critical once over before turning her own question back on her. “I might ask you the same thing. I though Wardens liked underground, fighting the darkspawn in the deep roads.” His tone was casual but his eyes gave away the fact that he was still studying her closely. Unable to meet his gaze, Elissa focused once more on Oghren up ahead.

“No. Maybe. I don’t know. I don’t know nearly as much about being a Grey Warden as I should, but I guess that’s what happens when the only mentor for thousands of miles dies at Ostagar.” She chewed on her lip for a moment in indecision before finally adding what Zevran had guessed at. “I don’t-“ She flinched again as another stone clattered down a nearby wall. “-don’t like tunnels or caves.”

Another quick glance to her side showed Zevran with a very slight smile on his face. “Not an unusual fear,” he said, “many people are scared of small, dark spaces.”

“Not all small spaces,” Elissa amended quickly, “just underground ones.”

Zevran was quiet for a moment and Elissa glanced his way nervously, wondering if it was something she said that had provoked the extended silence. Zevran met her glance with raised eyebrows. “Yes?” he asked.

“Oh, nothing.” Elissa offered him a small, if strained, smile. “Normally people have questions…”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

Elissa shot him a confused look. “I, uh… not really?”

“Then I won’t push.”

Silence reigned again for a few moments before Elissa can’t help but speak up. “It’s not like it stems from any weird childhood trauma or anything. I just think it’s unsafe to be underground like this. I mean, what’s stopping all this rock from just tumbling down on our heads right now?” She narrowed her eyes when she heard Zevran’s quiet chuckles. “Don’t laugh! I’m serious. What if-“

“Ancestor’s tits!” Oghren exclaimed from a little further ahead.

Elissa couldn’t help the amused raising of her eyebrows at the expletive as she and Zevran caught up with the other two of their group. “What now?”

“Unless your fancy Warden powers allow you to walk though walls, that’s a problem.” Oghren jerked his head towards a build up of rocks right in the middle of their path where it looked like the roof had caved in.

Elissa was suddenly reminded of the fact that cave-ins were a definite possibility and felt her hands begin to become clammy once more. Despite talking about her fear, Zevran had effectively distracted her from the fact she was in the very place that provoked said fear, and she wondered if that had been his intention all along. “Um, maybe we should just go back?”

“What, and find another way around? I doubt it.” Oghren laughed loudly. “Even if we did find another path it would probably add hours to our time down here already.”

The thought of spending even longer down in the tunnels made Elissa grimace. “Then I guess we can’t do anything.” She looked to Oghren and waited for his affirmation but it never came. Instead, the dwarf was looking at the stack of rocks and boulders in a way that made Elissa suddenly more nervous. “Oghren…?”

“Better pray to your ancestors, or maker, or whatever it is you believe in Warden, because I might just be able to shift these,” Oghren said as he began clambering up the pile of rocks.

Wynne ‘hmm’-ed in a manner that suggested she didn’t think that was necessarily the best idea, and Elissa had to agree with her. “Um, Oghren,” Elissa said, taking a step forward and half-heartedly reaching out as If to stop him, “it’s fine, really. And I thought you were a warrior not a miner-“

“Ah-ha!” About half way up the rock pile that was blocking their path, Oghren stopped to prod at a rock about the size of his head with the butt of his axe. “This should do it.”

“Wait-!”

It was too late for Elissa’s warning however, as Oghren swiftly knocked the rock out of it’s place in the pile with a hit from his axe. It rolled down, cracking off other rocks in the pile before coming to rest at Elissa’s feet with no incident. Elissa let out a relived sigh.

“Huh,” Oghren said as he clambered back down. “I could have sworn that have done it.” No sooner had he finished his sentence that one of the rocks just above the one Oghren removed slipped from its place, clattering down the pile and to the ground. This stone was followed by another, and then another, and then before the group had time to realize what was about to happen, the entire pile of rocks collapsed and brought down even more of the tunnel roof with it.

In the chaos that was the roof collapsing around them, the small ball of magic Wynne had summoned up for them as a light disappeared. Elissa found herself in the dark trying to avoid getting hit on the head by one of the falling rocks as she stumbled back in what she thought was the direction they had come. She suffered no more than a few glancing blows for a moment but her luck didn’t hold for long. Unable to see, she stepped on a small, round, rock and felt her footing fly out from under her, sending her falling backwards to the ground in way that might have been comical if she wasn’t in immanent danger of injury.

The moment Elissa hit the ground she attempted to curl into a ball to protect herself from the rocks still falling. Then, almost a fast as it started, the rumble of the roof collapsing stopped, replaced by the sound of just a few small stones still rolling about. Tentatively, Elissa began to uncurl from the ball she was in. She breathed in, intending to call out for the others but instead found herself inhaling a heap of dirt and dust which just left her coughing and spluttering instead.

In the end it was Oghren who got the first words out. “Woo-boy. That was not what I expected.”

“Are you trying to kill us all you stupid dwarf?” Elissa heard Zevran say from somewhere off to her right.

“Wynne,” Elissa finally managed to get out, “can we have some light?”

“One moment,” came Wynne’s weary voice, before a moment later a ball of magic light shimmered into existence above them.

The first thing Elissa noticed was that if they thought they couldn’t get past the original cave in there was even less hope of doing so now. The second was that with the amount of rock that had fallen she was surprised all of them were still alive. The third was that they may have all been alive but they were certainly not uninjured.

Oghren appeared to be fine, aside from being covered in so much dirt and dust Elissa guessed it would take him at least a week to get it all out of his beard. Zevran had a few small cuts, but most noticeable was the sizable dent in the armor over his right shoulder. He appeared to be moving his right arm without too much difficulty though, so Elissa surmised it was probably just badly bruised at worse. Wynne seemed to have caught a rock to the head if the slight trickle of blood was any indication, but even she was slowly getting to her feet. Elissa was about to do the same when she finally realized that she couldn’t quite move her left arm.

Trying not to panic, Elissa glanced down at her arm and found that she couldn’t actually see it because it was covered by a couple of large rocks. Tentatively she wiggled her fingers and found that, despite being stuck, it was in perfect working order. Still, Elissa wasn’t all too keen on being pinned to the ground by her arm and began wriggling it around in an attempt to loosen up a bit of space so she could pull it out from under the rocks. Zevran was the first to notice her plight and crouched down beside her.

“I would suggest you wait a moment and let us help you,” he said as he tried to get a better look at just how stuck her arm was.

Elissa ignored his warning and continued to twist and tug her arm, feeling her heart rate slowly starting to increase the longer she was pinned. “No, it’s fine, I’ve got this.”

“The elf has a point there, Warden. Might want to be caref-“

“I said I’ve got it!” Elissa said sharply, cutting Oghren off. “I can feel it moving now…” She rolled slightly and placed her right hand on one of the larger rocks pinning her before giving her arm another strong tug. However, instead of her arm slipping out from under the stones, the precarious positions the rocks were in, that had allowed her arm to remain trapped but uninjured, shifted. The largest of the rocks slipped down and landed heavily on her arm with a crunch, leaving Elissa to suck in a pained breath.

Zevran and Oghren jumped into action quickly, between the two of them managing to start lifting the rocks off her arm. Wynne took up the space Zevran had been occupying when she knelt down by Elissa’s side. “And to think your leg had finally healed,” the older woman said.

“Sorry,” Elissa said, wincing as Zevran and Oghren finally removed the rock that had fallen down onto her arm.

“Don’t apologize to me,” Wynne said as she began an inspection on Elissa’s arm, thankfully without touching it. “You’re the one who keeps getting herself into these situations.”

“I don’t mean to. This isn’t exactly enjoyable,” Elissa replied.

“Wiggle your fingers please,” Wynne said. Elissa complied, and while the pain wasn’t terrible it was definitely there. Wynne then began her poking and prodding, which _was_ quite painful, before giving her prognosis. “Well, it’s not as bad as what you did to your leg, but I doubt you’ll be using it for a while.”

“So it’s not broken?”

“At most I’d think it’s fractured, but I’ll be able to get a better idea once we’re back at camp. You’ll be fine until we get back, just make sure you don’t move it too much. In fact,” Wynne quickly helped Elissa to sit up and gently moved her arm so it rested diagonally across her chest, “if you hold it like this you’ll be in the least amount of pain and are less likely to worsen it.”

Carefully Wynne got back to her feet, relying on her staff for support a little too much in Elissa’s opinion. She just hoped that Wynne hadn’t been hit in the head too hard, but there wasn’t much they could do about it now. When they got back to camp though, Elissa was going to insist Wynne look after herself before helping anyone else. She could probably enlist Alistair and Leliana’s help with that too, they both liked and cared about Wynne. Still, they needed to actually get back to camp before that could happen.

Elissa spent a few moments trying to get up off the ground with the use of just one arm but eventually Zevran took pity on her, placing his hands under her armpits and hoisting her back to her feet with ease. “Thanks,” she said, as they began following Oghren and Wynne back towards the entrance of tunnel system. “And by the way, _that_ is why I don’t like small underground spaces.”

Zevran laughed quietly. “After today? I think I might just agree with you.”


	11. Coughing Blood

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait! I have been busy working on my Dragon Age Big Bang story though, which is now complete. So if you like my writing go check that story out, I'd love to see what you guys think :)

“I hate this,” Elissa groaned, butting her forehead against the side of Alistair’s leg. Once again she’d managed to draw the short straw when it came to who’s turn it was to have a moderately serious injury, and once again Alistair had volunteered to sit by her while she dealt poorly with the fallout of said injury. Not that she’d call it an injury, not in the traditional sense anyway. She hadn’t been stabbed, or punched, or shot even. Instead she’s simply inhaled at the wrong time.

It all started with their trip into Denerim. For some reason or other every time they stepped foot into the city someone was trying to kill them. And by kill them she meant kill _them_ , as in, Elissa or members of her party specifically. It was an interesting change from the random bandit shakedowns or darkspawn they usually encountered.

The first time they ran into some thugs in a back ally. The thugs had talked themselves up but in the end it was Elissa and her companions who came out victorious, as usual. Not that back ally thugs were much of a threat or challenge after some of the crazy battles they had fought on the road. 

The second time it was personal, sort of. A wannabe hero and his buddies had somehow figured out, and by ‘figured out’ Elissa meant guessed, that she and Alistair were Grey Wardens and they wanted the bounty on their head. That had ended very quickly too.

Third time wasn’t really their charm however, when some old assassin ‘friends’ of Zevran’s had cornered them in a side street. After establishing that Zevran wasn’t going to leave with them the assassins had, to the surprise of no one, attacked them.

Being the sneaky assassins they were, however, their opponents had brought more than just traditional weapons to the fight.

Elissa had just dealt with her current opponent and turned around to face the next, recognising him as the leader. She lunged forward to attack only to have the assassin throw a fine powder into her face before he darted off to the other side of their impromptu battlefield, leaving Elissa stunned and disoriented. It was only afterwards that they found out it was a little more than just your average dirty fighting trick.

Elissa had been coughing, trying to get whatever it was she had inhaled out of her lungs and throat when Zevran suddenly dumped a bucket of water over her head.

“Hey!” both she and Alistair had shouted at the same time. “What was that for?” Elissa asked before Alistair could jump in and throttle Zevran, which it looked like he wanted to.

“We don’t need anyone else inhaling that,” Zevran replied. “Or in your case, any _more_.”

“Inhaling what? A bit of dust? Dirt?” Elissa brushed some of her now sopping wet hair out of her face.

“That was an assassin’s weapon,” Zevran explained as he returned the bucket to the nearby well, “designed to get into the lungs and throat. It works fast and is fatal if not treated promptly and properly.”

“Oh.” And now not only did Elissa look like a drowned rat, she looked like a very pale drowned rat.

“You know how to treat it though, being an assassin and all?” Alistair asked, having dropped back into an intimidating arms-crossed-over-chest pose.

Zevran mimicked his pose, managing to look just as intimidating while standing almost a head shorter Alistair. “Yes. I do.”

“As nice as all this male posturing is, can we perhaps do something about the potentially fatal powder I just inhaled?” Elissa kicked Alistair’s ankle for emphasis, knowing if she could get him to back down Zevran would too.

Eventually they had decided it would be best to get back to camp to begin her treatment with the magical assistance of Wynne. It was half way back to the camp was when Elissa started coughing up blood. They weren’t too worried about that until they reached the camp and found out that Wynne had left on an errand with Leliana and the pair wouldn’t be back until the following afternoon.

Which brought them to where they were now, with Elissa suffering though the non-magical remedy for her predicament because no one trusted Morrigan with healing magic unless it was a last resort.

“I can’t breathe,” Elissa said into the side of Alistair’s leg. “I feel like I’m going to die.”

“Oh don’t be so dramatic,” Alistair said, gently massaging the back of her neck with one hand. “Zevran said you’d be fine. It’s just going to be hard without the magic, not fatal.”

“Uuuggghhh.” There was a sympathetic squeeze on the back of her neck that made Elissa smile. The smile quickly faded however when she was overcome by another coughing fit. She quickly pushed Alistair’s hand away and rolled to her side, raising herself up on one elbow so she could spit out a glob of blood onto the grass. The lingering coppery taste in her mouth made her gag and she spat once more on the ground before flopping back down on her back next to Alistair.

“Don’t look at me,” she groaned, reaching up to turn his head away but he caught her hand before she could.

“I’ve seen all kinds of battles, most of them with you. I think I can handle you hacking up a little of blood- even though it is a tad unsettling.”

“A lady does not spit!”

Alistair laughed. “And who told you that?”

“My mother.” She coughed again, followed by a wheezing breath in. “A lady does not lie down either, unless it’s on a bed or chaise lounge.”

“It sound’s like there are a lot of things a lady should not do. How stifling.”

“It wasn’t so bad. I also think she was mostly joking.” She sighed lightly, but that brought on another coughing fit. She pulled her hand from Alistair’s and rolled to her side to once again spit on the ground. This was followed by another groan as she turned back to Alistair and curled in on herself, hiding her face from view.

“Are you alright?” Alistair asked. For a moment the only response he got was wheezing breathing and he worried she might have passed out, but her answer came eventually.

“Not really.”

A small smile quirked at Alistair’s lips, but was tempered by his sympathy for the state Elissa found herself in. He couldn’t imagine it would be comfortable.

“Can you do me a favor?” Elissa asked suddenly.

“Anything.”

“Unbraid my hair for me?” Her body was wracked with another wet sounding cough. “I’d do it myself but…” she half raised and arm before letting it fall back down to her side as explanation.

“Of course.”

At his acceptance Elissa slow sat up, moving slightly she was sitting in front of him and he could easily access her hair.

When Alistair looked at her hair he was reminded, not for the first time, just how intricately she appeared to style it. “Umm… I’m no Leliana but I’ll give it a shot.”

“It’s easier to take out than it is to put up, I promise.”

“If you say. Just don’t blame me if this goes wrong,” Alistair said, before finally setting to work on her hair. Despite his worry he worked easily to slowly take down each braid before removing the tie at the end and unraveling it with careful fingers. Not once did he catch his fingers in her hair when she had to lurch away from him to hack up some more blood either.

Thankfully it wasn’t that much longer until Zevran made his way over with the remedy. In his hands was a small bowl of steaming hot water, brewed with elfroot and some other herbs or plants- Elissa hadn’t really been paying much attention. Zevran seemed to know what he was doing regardless, so she had stayed out of his way while he worked on her cure.

He crouched down in front of her and handed over the bowl. “Breathe it in, don’t drink it,” he instructed. Both he and Alistair watched as she curled over the bowl sitting in her lap and breathed in deeply. Elissa’s breath out was a soft sigh.

“That did nothing,” she said, glancing up at Zevran from under her loose hair.

Zevran just rolled his eyes, noting the small smile she had been trying to hide. “It takes a little longer than that for the remedy to kick in.” He patted her cheek before standing up. “Just keep breathing it in, and let me know when it starts to go cold, I’ll heat up some more.”

As Zevran made his way back to the center of camp Alistair shuffled along the ground so he was sitting next to Elissa. He gave the concoction a tentative sniff, much to Elissa’s amusement. “At least it doesn’t smell terrible,” he said.

“Small comfort,” she managed to say before another coughing fit struck. Alistair grabbed the bowl before she could upend it in her lap. “Thanks,” she said when the coughing had subsided and he handed the bowl back to her.

“Maker knows we don’t need you scalding your legs on top of this.”

Elissa laughed carefully, trying to not aggravate her lungs any more. “Very true.” She bent back over the bowl, taking deep, even breathes. “It’s probably going to be a long night for me,” she told him after some companionable silence. “You don’t _have_ to stay you know?”

“Bah, nonsense.” He brushed off her offer for him to leave, having not even considered it. “I’ve got nothing better to do. Besides, you’re the only one next to Oghren who isn’t going to punch me or set me on fire if I talk to them. I can go and see how long Shale can stand me if you really want me too.”

Elissa smiled again, making Alistair smile. “No. You can just stay here then if you can’t stay out of trouble.”

“Fantastic. You keep on breathing and I’ll just keep on watching you breathe, and yes, I did just realise how creepy that sounded but I assure you I meant it in the most non-creepy way possible.”

Elissa couldn’t help but chuckle quietly.


End file.
